Friday, January 27, 2012

Know your enemy- Arkansas Razorbacks

The Hogs come in on a modest 2 game winning streak. They had to hold on for dear life to beat Michigan and Auburn in their last 2 outings. They needed the Michigan game as they didn't have a quality non-conference win up to then.

The good news is they haven't won a SEC road game yet (0-2).. or any road game for that matter.

Led by BJ Young and Mardracus Wade, the Hogs come in averaging 74.6 a game. They are also the Hogs best 3 point shooters. No one stands out rebounding the ball, but they have done OK with a -2.3 rebound margin. They have 10 players that are freshman or sophomores... very young team.

Note that they did lose Marshawn Powell for the season with a torn ACL and they lost Rotnei Clarke to Butler, yet are still scoring as much as they are.

The numbers:
- .436 FG
- .349 3pt FG
- .684 FT
- +4.8 turnover margin

Prediction: As strange as this sounds, playing Arkansas might be a temporary cure for our offensive woes. They like to uptempo which we'll probably try to match. We have the athletes to do this and this could result in more baskets for Mitchell, Lacey, and Releford... and Hankerson if Grant would put him in the game. Both teams suck in the half court o so I expect a game in the 70s. Home court advantage says Bama wins by 7.

Game time is 1:30PM EST (12:30 CST) on ESPN3 and I'm guessing the SECN. I won't see a minute of this game so I'll have to rely on others for a recap. Hopefully I'm snowboarding, but chances are I won't.

3 comments:

Good win today to hopefully get back on track. Huge improvement in the hussle category and both Releford and Steele did awesome in the full court consistently penetrating to the basket. We took too many 3's and our offense was definitely bothered by the zone but we got enough scoring in transition and with solid D to open up a lead down the stretch.

I was really surprised the Hogs played so much zone against us. But I guess that's the smart way to play us. For those of you wanting more Hankerson, this was your game as he took most of Lacey's mintues when he got hurt. Hankerson had a nice assist or two and played some good D...his 3 trey attemps were pretty ugly though. He just doesn't look very smooth on the court to me.

Green after a bad 1st half really stepped up in the 2nd, especially on the glass. His play is still inconsistent and like Mitchell makes bad decisions at bad times. Mitchell showed some signs of getting back on track but he's still got a long ways to go especially with decision making. I thought Jacobs looked decent and Randolph had some good moments too. But the key to this game was Steele. I hope he continues to get more minutes because we brings a lot of energy to the team.

I've been toying with this idea that Green and Mitchell should not be on the court at the same time. If both guys want the offense to run through them then it might work. Regardless, we are a much much better team when we play uptempo and our games our in the 70s as opposed to a slow half court one. Let's see if we can keep it up.